Natalie Portman: Investing in women and girls’ education, safety and economic and social empowerment. More investment will accelerate the drive toward parity.We still have a far way to go, of course, but I think the #MeToo movement really cracked open a door that is not going to be shut anymore.Actor Natalie Portman co-founded the Angel City Football Club in Los Angeles to support women in professional sports.
Melissa Fleming: You are a part owner of the Angel City Football Club in Los Angeles that made their debut at the Women’s Soccer League last year. Can you tell us a bit more about why you got involved?Melissa Fleming: The UN 2023 Gender Snapshot report painted a worrisome picture on how far away we are from reaching gender equality. What can we do to shift these trends?Melissa Fleming: You mentioned the masculinity issue and educating men that masculinity is actually empathy. How does one do that?So really the threat of women and girls being threatened and murdered exists everywhere.
Natalie Portman: Absolutely. The threat and danger that women and girls are subjected to in real life is just as bad, if not worse, online. I mean, it’s all different varieties of trying to silence us.The more we can support and celebrate women and girls’ voices, the more we’re combating this horrible abuse of power.United NationsIt really is such a core part of women’s freedom to be free from the threat of violence. And until women and girls can feel safe walking down the street, going to school and going to work, nothing else can be achieved to the extent that we dream of.Natalie Portman: I think women and girls around the world can relate to each other in regard to living under the threat of violence. That, unfortunately, is everywhere.The head of the Farm Workers Union, Monica Ramirez, said to me, “They tell us to shut up because we’re in the shadows and nobody cares about us and they tell you actresses to shut up because nobody cares.”Natalie Portman: It was very much about seeing both women and men in different ways than we traditionally have seen them. When I saw my son watching the Women’s World Cup four years ago, I realized that he looked up to the women athletes the same way he looked up to the male athletes. I realized, “Why don’t we have this on at home?” Young girls in the village of Danja in Niger hold signs in support of the Spotlight Initiative.[embedded content]
UNDP IndiaGlobally, almost half of all married women currently lack decision-making power over their sexual and reproductive health and rights.But, the common thread is that they’re trying to silence all our voices. That was really the power of Tarana Burke’s #MeToo movement. It was breaking out of that silence and it was empowering women. We need to make their voices heard and not feel shame around these experiences. We must recognize that these were extreme injustices and that perpetrators needed to be held to account.Melissa Fleming: Why is there under-investment in girls?SDG 5Melissa Fleming: Is there a difference for women and girls that live in developing countries?UNFPA/Olivier GirardI think that film and television can absolutely help shape new forms of masculinity that are much more reflective of what we know to be the human soul and not just this very narrow kind of aggressive, macho-type that we see so deeply ingrained in our culture.I think that people are very aware now and there isn’t a sense that you can just abuse as you wish without facing any consequences. People are a lot more open about it now.
It opens up boys and men’s worlds too, to have more options of how you can be and not this very narrow, prescriptive definition of masculinity.Melissa Fleming: We now have an online environment that has made a dangerous and threatening space for so many girls growing up in the social media age. Is that something you are concerned about?Spotlight’s work has been really extraordinary at reaching many different countries to change laws, implement educational tools and change culture such that masculinity is reframed as empathy rather than aggression.
SDG 5: EMPOWER ALL WOMEN AND GIRLS
- End all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls
- Eliminate such harmful practices as early and forced marriages and female genital mutilation
- Adapt and strengthen legislation to promote gender equality and empower women and girls
- Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership in political, economic and public life
- Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health care
UNDP’s entrepreneurship development training programme is changing the lives of women in India.